The Zoots perform for Natalie & Rhys at BMA House, London

Today is pretty special, we’re off to the British Medical Association in Tavistock Square, London for the wedding of the very gorgeous Natalie & Rhys. Natalie & Rhys spotted us at the very brilliant wedding of Cat & Phil, remember that? Over a year ago, but still fresh in our minds. We did a lot of Zeppelin that night, which went down a storm!

We don’t often head to the big smoke as we’re performing lots over seas and in our home county of Wiltshire as well as having lots of bookings throughout the UK. We were excited. The feeling was palpable. Zoots Drummer Andy lives in the big smoke and told us it would be OK as we navigated our way through the labyrinth of little roads and lots of traffic.

We were really excited about performing at The BMA House; ‘the Grade II listed BMA House provides an exquisite backdrop for wedding ceremonies, wedding receptions and other special occasions such as engagements and anniversaries.’ We had ‘great expectations’ of the venue, after all Charles Dickens old house was just a stones throw away from the BMA.

We’d been liaising with Natalie in the lead up to the wedding, talking timings, logistics and song choices. The couple (and their guests) has chosen loads of songs from our repertoire, we couldn’t possibly fit them all in, so we made an eclectic set of oldies and newies. We knew it was going to be awesome.

We arrive at around 2pm to set up before the wedding breakfast in The Great Hall. We were really impressed as we drove up to the building under the archway…

The BMA was an amazing building:

We met with Rebecca from the BMA; we’d been emailing Rebecca that week. She was great and super organised. Every wedding venue needs a Rebecca to ensure everything runs really smoothly on the day. The team at the BMA showed us where to load in and park the van.

We unloaded our equipment and made our way up to The Great Hall. It really was great. The Great Hall was huge. We LOVED our stage for the night! 😀

The cake was amazing:

We set up and sound-checked:

As we set up, we could see the wedding guests and the newly weds out on the grounds having their photos taken. Jamie got this great shot:

After setting up, we chilled out in our green room. It was great as it was right next to where we were playing, had somewhere for us to sit and had teas, coffees and water! We used our time wisely and savoured our tea. Natalie & Rhys had really kindly organised some food for us, pumpkin risotto for the veggies and guinea fowl for the meaties. It was delicious, thank you very for to the Natalie & Rhys for keeping The Zoots so well fed and watered. We had a lovely time before our show, running through some songs and backing vocals.

First set was wild. We kicked off the night with some awesome songs including: Johnny B Goode, Pretty woman,Wipeout, I want you back jam, Forget you, Happy, Satisfaction, Faith, Sweet home Alabama, Mustang Sally, Really got me, All day and All Night and Can’t take my eyes off you… It was brilliant and the dance-floor was crowded throughout the set. It was especially fun watching the limbo. We played some Bob Marley, Stir it Up, a song we don’t normally play. We loved it.

During the break Cat & Phil came to say hello! It was great to see them again and reminisce about their wedding. Exciting news too as they have a baby on the way! We’re so pleased for them, it really was wonderful to see them again.

We were soon back on for set two. I love this photo of Zoots bass player Dan in action.

At the end of the brilliant evening the crowd were crying for more, more, more! We couldn’t help thinking of the Charles Dickens character, Oliver Twist, as we passed the plaque remembering Charles Dickens, on the way out.

Thank you so much to Natalie & Rhys for booking The Zoots for your wedding band, we had such a brilliant night,